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Research Resources

Richard Hakluyt's Discourse of western planting http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1501-1600/hakluyt/plant.htm

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/vaindians.htm A clearinghouse for information about particular tribes native to Virginia as well as providing access to homepages for some of the tribes.

The National Park Service compiled detailed information about the lifestyle of the Powhatan tribe http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/Indianlife.html

The First Charter of Virginia, 1606
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va01.htm
King James grants the right to settle and develop Virginia, orders the manner of its government, and requires royalties of one-fifth of any gold extracted.

Instructions for the Virginia Colony, 1606
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/docs/texts/virginia_instructions.html
Plan for settlement drawn up by the backers of the colony.
"Above all things, do not advertise the killing of any of your men, that the country people may know it; if they perceive that they are but common men, and that with the loss of many of theirs they diminish any part of yours, they will make many adventures upon you. If the country be populous, you shall do well also, not to let them see or know of your sick men, if you have any; which may also encourage them to many enterprizes."

Jamestown Rediscovery, http://www.apva.org/jr.html.  This has a fascinating virtual display cabinet of all sorts of archaeological finds that tell the history of Jamestown.

Http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown offers a virtual visit to 17th Century Jamestown.  It is an interactive site that includes maps and images, court records, labor contracts, public records, first hand accounts and letters, newspapers, and a wide variety of references.

John Smith, "The Colony of Jamestown," 1607
http://www.nationalcenter.org/SettlementofJamestown.html
Participant account of the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, by its most prominent leader.
"It might well be thought, a country so fair (as Virginia is) and a people so tractable, would long ere this have been quietly possessed, to the satisfaction of the adventurers, and the eternizing of the memory of those that effected it. But because all the world do see a failure; this following treatise shall give satisfaction to all indifferent readers, how the business has been carried: where no doubt they will easily understand and answer to their question, how it came to pass there was no better speed and success in those proceedings."

What Can You Get By Warre: Powhatan Exchanges Views with Captain John Smith, 1608
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5838/
"What will it availe you to take that by force you may quickly have by love, or to destroy them that provide you food. What can you get by warre, when we can hide our provisions and fly to the woods? whereby you must famish by wronging us your friends. And why are you thus jealous of our loves seeing us unarmed, and both doe, and are willing still to feede you, with that you cannot get but by our labours?"


An Ordinance and Constitution of the Virginia Company in England, 1621
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/docs/texts/ordinanc.html
A plan for the reorganization of Virginia's government.
"Provided, that no law or ordinance, made in the said general assembly, shall be or continue in force or validity, unless the same shall be solemnly ratified and confirmed, in a general quarter court of the said company here in England, and so ratified, be returned to them under our seal; it being our intent to afford the like measure also unto the said colony, that after the government of the said colony shall once have been well framed, and settled accordingly, which is to be done by us, as by authority derived from his majesty, and the same shall have been so by us declared, no orders of court afterwards, shall bind the said colony, unless they be ratified in like manner in the general assemblies."

Our Plantation Is Very Weak: The Experiences of an Indentured Servant in Virginia, 1623
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6475/
"This is to let you understand that I your child am in a most heavy case by reason of the country, [which] is such that it causeth much sickness, [such] as the scurvy and the bloody flux and diverse other diseases, which maketh the body very poor and weak. And when we are sick there is nothing to comfort us; for since I came out of the ship I never ate anything but peas, and loblollie (that is, water gruel). As for deer or venison I never saw any since I came into this land."

From Servant to Freeholder: Status Mobility and Property Accumulation in Seventeenth-Century Maryland - Russell Menard, William & Mary Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 1, (Jan., 1973), pp. 37-64 - available via JSTOR.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-5597%28197301%293%3A30%3A1%3C37%3AFSTFSM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6

The James River Plantations, http://www.jamesriverplantations.org/  where you can uncover the visit Virginia's plantation elite and most powerful people from the 1600 and 1700s.

A Women's Work is Never Done: Online Exhibition from the American Antiquarian Society,
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Womanswork/  A very well done online exhibit with many applications, including the history of market revolution.

Http://lcWeb2.loc.gov/amhome.html is the Library of Congress’s American Memory project.  It is an expansive archive of American history and culture featuring photographs, prints, motion pictures, manuscripts, maps, and sound recordings going back to roughly 1490. Currently this site includes more than seven million digital items from more than 100 collections on subjects ranging from African-American political pamphlets to California folk music, from baseball to the Civil War. 

Http://www.earlyamerica.com contains primary source material from 18th Century America--all displayed digitally. A unique array of original newspapers, maps and writings are available for you to browse.  The archival materials are displayed in their original formats so they can be read and examined close-up

http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary.html A number of primary sources and other resources for early American history

The best William Berkeley site on the web is http://www.uno.edu/~history/berkeley.htm

William Berkeley writing about Bacon's Rebellion http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1651-1700/bacon_rebel/berke.htm

Maryland Toleration Act, 1649
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/docs/texts/maryland.htm
Early declaration of religious freedom with notable restrictions.
"And whereas the inforceing of the conscience in matters of Religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous Consequence in those commonwealthes where it hath been practised, And for the more quiett and peaceable governement of this Province, and the better to preserve mutuall Love and amity amongst the Inhabitants thereof, Be it...enacted...that noe person or persons whatsoever within this Province, or the Islands, Ports, Harbors, Creekes, or havens thereunto belonging professing to beleive in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth bee any waies troubled, Molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof within this Province or the Islands thereunto belonging nor any way compelled to the beleife or exercise of any other Religion against his or her consent, soe as they be not unfaithfull to the Lord Proprietary, or molest or conspire against the civill Governement established or to bee established in this Province under him or his heires."

Chronology of Bacon's Rebellion http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~rpekarek/baconchron.html

Bacon's address to the people http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1651-1700/bacon_rebel/bacon.htm

The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/.  This contains hundreds of pictorial images of slavery and the slave trade in Africa, the Caribbean, and North America.

Virginia Runaways, http://www.wise.virginia.edu/history/runaways/.  This contains a fully searchable database of 18th-century runaway slave ads from Virginia newspapers, which are great for researching about slavery and resistance.

Patrick Henry home and website http://www.redhill.org

Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello http://monticello.org

Collection of primary sources from all time periods:
http://www2.pitnet.net/primarysources/
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/index.htm

Historical Geography Research Guide

http://www.lib.jmu.edu/history/histgeog.html

 

The Transatlantic 1790s: Projects, Chronology, Bibliography

http://www.math.grinnell.edu/1790s/


 

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Last Edited: Tuesday April 12, 2005
© David Porter
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